Repurposing historic buildings on Detroit's medical campuses

The Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity provides a comprehensive approach to providing affordable housing in seven counties across Minneapolis and St.Paul. The large area it serves allows families to move into either urban or suburban neighborhoods near schools of their choosing and with greater flexibility to take public transportation, jobs, and extracurricular activities into consideration. Milwaukee's uncoordinated efforts to improve housing for low-income families could benefit from a similar approach.

3D-printed homes offer a solution to affordable housing in remote and underserved areas. New Story, nonprofit in San Francisco that specializes in 3D printed homes, recently expanded its work to Tabasco, Mexico. After using 3D printers to help communities in El Salvador, Bolivia, and Haiti rebuild after natural disasters, the nonprofit has brought its model to create an affordable neighborhood in rural Mexico. Partnering with Icon, the developers of a 3D printer, and a local nonprofit, Echale a Tu Casa, the initiative has created its first homes for residents.

Housing voucher programs provide assistance to those who make too much to qualify for Section 8 housing, but whose wages can’t keep up with rent in their cities. Denver, Colorado, is addressing the financial burden of skyrocketing rents by providing middle-income earners such as teachers and healthcare workers with housing assistance. Funded through a public-private partnership, the two-year pilot program allows applicants to search online for landlords that have agreed to accept the vouchers.

At the worst point in the 2008 housing crisis, up to 30,000 houses in Cuyahoga County were vacant. The Cuyahoga County Land Bank aims to fix this problem by acquiring houses, eliminating blight, and transforming the houses into more useful spaces. Already, the Land Bank has turned old, empty properties into a Children’s Museum and an Amazon Fulfillment Center, and it has decreased the number of empty homes to about 7,000.

Substitutes for city parking requirements are becoming increasingly popular throughout the United States. Rather than using off-street parking, many housing developers now provide residents with alternatives that promote reduced driving. This method is better for the environment and lowers the cost of housing in urban areas.

Across the country, cities are pursuing office-to-housing conversions after the pandemic decimated downtown business districts. A percentage of these new apartments are required to be offered at affordable, below-market rates and some cities are also offering tax breaks for developers to incentivize these conversions.

An affordable housing rental exemption program in Provincetown, Massachusetts, is increasing the number of affordable housing options in the city. The exemption decreases the property taxes homeowners pay based on the square footage of the property they are renting out.

A pilot energy retrofit project in Florida has shown that these upgrades for homeowners ultimately saves them money and energy, and can be made accessible to people from all types of socioeconomic backgrounds. This private-public partnership retrofitted 56 single-family homes, some with “shallow” retrofits like LED lightbulbs and smart plugs and some with “phased deep” retrofits like energy-efficient windows and air conditioners. The program showed that all participants saved energy and could be scaled to other states.

A real estate developer has teamed up with homelessness service organizations to house working families. The Lotus Campaign gives landlords $1,000 a year to rent a unit to a family that is at risk of homelessness or is already experiencing it. Rent is paid by the organization and any damages to the unit are covered. Landlords taking part in the program waive security deposits, credit checks, records of employment, and provide a 30-day window before seeking evictions. The pilot program intends to demonstrate that the private housing sector can alleviate homelessness if given the chance and the incentive.

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry is developing a comprehensive strategy for affordable housing to help address the challenges of rising property prices and gentrification for the city's poor and minorities. The city is helping influence more inclusive growth patterns through financial incentives like the Barnes Affordable Housing Trust Fund.